Ozzy Osbourne- Blizzard of Ozz

It has been four and a half decades since the unheralded release in the UK of Ozzy Osbourne ‘s first post-Black Sabbath solo album, The Blizzard of Ozz  in September 1980, and in that lengthy time in rock music, Ozzy has always been the big kid who got caught with his hand in the Cookie Jar of Life. For the ten-plus years fronting the original Black Sabbath, and continuing right to this day, Osbourne  has remained a hard rocker’s dream, a parent’s nightmare, a record company president’s sure thing, and one of my favorite guests.   “We lived on that early (Blizzard) tour from hand to mouth,” Ozzy recalls in this freewheeling and uncensored classic rock interview.”We used to stay in these really cheap, sleazy Holiday Inns out by the highway, with no safe deposit box, and I’d carry the cash (from each concert’s receipts)  in a briefcase handcuffed to me in bed with me. No flying first class, caviar, champagne. Caviar is like eating fish’s nuts, man. But it’s what posh people eat! We were used to Spam sandwiches.”

It is safe to say that when Ozzy Osbourne’s first post-Black Sabbath album Blizzard of Ozz  came out in the UK in September 1980, it was fairly common then for the American release to come out a couple of weeks later for the North American retail appearance. But not over six months later, as was the case here. Hard to believe now with Osbourne’s subsequent popularity and fame, but truth be told, at the time Ozzy Osbourne was perceived as damaged goods by practically every American record company. When finally somebody took a shot and released Blizzard…, it was fully embraced by American rock radio this time, unlike the whole of his time fronting the highly influential but blacklisted Sabbath. But as you will hear Ozzy tell in this classic rock interview, it is a miracle he lived to see that day when the radio and every major US sporting event would blare “Crazy Train”,”Mr Crowley”, and “I Don’t Know”. You can be in the know on fact vs fiction on many urban myths as Ozzy Osbourne guests In the Studio as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomes the Batman of Rock! –Redbeard (Ozzy’s drummer on this album, Lee Kerslake, who had also drummed for Uriah Heep all through the Seventies, passed away at age 73. )